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cock-and-bull story

noun

Etymology

Unknown. The phrase is noted as similar in meaning and form to French coq-à-l'âne (“satire, incoherent story”, literally “cock to the ass”) which was borrowed into Scots as cockalane. theories of origin Theories of the term's ultimate origin include allusions to stories which feature talking animals and that the term refers to gossip typical of what were historically two coaching inns, The Cock and The Bull, in Stony Stratford, England.

  1. derived from as cockalane

Definitions

  1. A far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity.

    • "Challenger was the man who came with some cock-and-bull story from South America." "What story?" "Oh, it was rank nonsense about some queer animals he had discovered."

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA